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Call for nominations for 2018 Enterprise 50 Awards: Accelerating Growth, Innovating for Tomorrow
Call for nominations for 2018 Enterprise 50 Awards
Honouring local, privately-held companies who have contributed to Singapore’s economic development at home and abroad
The Enterprise 50 (E50) Awards is now open for nominations.
The annual E50 Awards is organised by KPMG in Singapore and The Business Times, the financial daily of Singapore Press Holdings. Since its inception in 1995, the highly coveted awards have become the authoritative list of the 50 most enterprising, privately held local companies in Singapore across all industry sectors.
Held at the St Regis Hotel, the launch of the awards was attended by corporate leaders from more than 100 local enterprises today.
Mr Jonathan Ho, Head of Enterprise at KPMG in Singapore, commenting on the choice of the theme of ‘Accelerating Growth, Innovating for Tomorrow’, said: “Most local enterprises have humble beginnings, they started off as one or two-men outfits with small capital outlays. Progressively, through hard work, clear vision and enterprising spirit, many have grown in scale, scope and geographical spread beyond the local market.
Our past E50 companies are good illustrations. They have succeeded only because they are able to innovate and differentiate themselves from competition, especially in today’s digital economy.”
Innovation has never been more important, with several new measures to support firms to innovate unveiled in the Singapore Budget. This includes help for firms to innovate across the entire value chain – be it to buy new solutions, build their own, or partner other firms to co-innovate.
On the significance of the Awards, Mr Wong Wei Kong, Editor of The Business Times, said: “For over 20 years, the E50 Awards have played an important role in honouring outstanding local enterprises and acknowledging their accomplishments.
As Singapore’s leading financial daily, The Business Times is proud to be the joint organiser of the awards. We recognise our role in championing the growth and inspiring business stories of these local enterprises. Though the path to success may often be fraught with challenges, these privately-held SMEs have shown that they can overcome difficulties through determination and passion, and we look forward to sharing their stories.”
Supporters of the awards include Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Business Federation and Singapore Exchange. OCBC Bank returned as the main awards sponsor for the 13th consecutive year.
The ranking of the top 50 companies was primarily based on a set of qualitative criteria that include business model, productivity and innovation, management ideals and governance, risk management, and market presence in the region and beyond. A set of quantitative performance indicators over a three year period was also taken into consideration in ranking the companies.
A special award category called the Internationalisation Award seeks to encourage more local enterprises to expand overseas. For this, a company’s growth and expansion strategy is being assessed in the qualitative assessment. Companies who have been on the E50 list for five years is accorded the Five Year Award.
Some benefits E50 companies can look forward to include heightened coverage by the media, which can bring about greater recognition and brand awareness from customers, business associates and future employees amongst others.
Past E50 Award winners are invited to be a part of the Enterprise 50 Association (E50A) which organises activities such as business missions, seminars, ministerial dialogues and networking sessions. This allows members to enhance their business networking and sharing of experiences with other E50 entrepreneurs and receive updates on trade and business matters.
“The E50 Awards is one of the most prestigious awards in our marketplace. There is a robust selection process, to make sure that only the best 50 most enterprising, privately-held local companies in Singapore get through. This ranking serves to encourage other companies to come forward and benchmark themselves with the best of Singapore’s enterprises,” added Mr Ho.
The nominations for the 2018 E50 Awards closes on 30th June 2018. The 2018 Enterprise 50 list will be published in the fourth quarter of 2018 in conjunction with an awards gala dinner.


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1. Google makes 2 ad updates that will affect local search marketers
Ads are appearing in the Local Finder results — reached after clicking “More places” from a local three-pack in the main Google search results, as well as changes to Google Maps mean that only ads with local extensions will be shown, while Google Maps is no longer a Search Partner and is now part of the search inventory. Search Engine Land explains how these changes will affect Local Search Marketers.
2. What’s a Good Clickthrough Rate? New Benchmark Data for Google AdWords
To help you assess the success of your clickthrough rate, Wordstream has released a detailed study on Adwords industry metrics.
3. Everything announced at Facebook’s F8 conference
All the news from Facebook’s F8 conference, from Chatbots for Businesses, to the roll-out of Instant Articles for all publishers.
4. Starwood uses Instagram workaround to take bookings from platform
With everyone wanting to use Instagram for sales, while the process may not be seamless, Starwood has found a way to harness Instagram to take hotel bookings.
5. Snapchat is Growing Up
Snapchat has quickly become popular amongst adults in the last year. With no option to like, comment, or share, Snapchat is an alternative to the popularity contests of Instagram and Facebook. Hubspot explores how Marketers can use Snapchat in their campaigns.
6. A Close Look at the Five Most Interesting Talks from BrightonSEO 2016
As BrightonSEO has just wrapped up for this year, the team at Distilled rounds up the most interesting talks from the day. From the Psychology behind persuasive content, to featured snippets, as well as an exploration of AMP.
7. Do 50% of adults really not recognise ads in search results?
Search Engine Watch reports on Ofcom’s Adult Media and Attitudes Report, which reveals just how many adults do not recognise ads in search results, and looks to explain possible reasons why…
8. Facebook smashes Wall Street estimates when it reported first-quarter results.

domain: news


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Cogentix Medical (NSDQ:CGNT) said it plans to uproot a Massachusetts manufacturing facility and move it from Natick to nearby Westborough.
The Minnetonka, Minn.-based device company, newly re-branded after the merger of Vision-Sciences and Uroplasty, said it signed a 10½-year lease on a new, 24,400-square-foot facility in Westborough for its EndoSheath manufacturing operation. EndoSheath is a sterile, disposable protective barrier designed to work with its flexible endoscopes.
Cogentix said the lease, set to begin August 1, includes 6 months of free rent and some $610,000 worth of renovation expense reimbursement. The buildout could take 4 to 6 months, the company said.
Cogentix was formed after Minnesota’s Uroplasty and New York’s Vision-Sciences merged April 1, a day after shareholders approved the deal. The union was 1st announced last December.
Beyond EndoSheath, Cogentix’s products include the Urgent PC neuromodulation system, which is cleared to treat overactive bladder. Former Uroplasty CEO Rob Kill is head of the combined outfit.


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The stunning 2021 Kia Sorento is setting a new standard for SUVs across the automotive market. This 2021 SUV is ready to take on every adventure around New Port Richey, bringing in more capability and technology than ever before. Now, for the first time ever, the Kia brand is bringing in a hybrid Sorento model, marking the first time we’ve seen a hybrid Kia SUV.
The 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid will join the lineup of vehicles here at Friendly Kia at the same time as the rest of the traditional Sorento lineup. The new turbo-hybrid powertrain offers incredible power and responsiveness on the road while appealing to eco-minded drivers throughout the area. Keep reading to dive into what the 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid has to offer New Port Richey shoppers or click the link below to view our current lineup of new Kia Sorento models at Friendly Kia.
The 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid is bringing in more power than what the outgoing Sorento base model had to offer and is improving its efficiency by nearly 50%. The Sorento Hybrid is powered by a 1.6-liter GDI 4-cylinder Turbo Hybrid engine with a 44kW electric motor and delivers 227 horsepower. With this power system in place, the 2021 Kia Sorento has now become the most powerful hybrid electric vehicle in its class. While behind the wheel of a 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid drivers can expect to earn an estimated 39 mpg in the city, 35 mpg on the highway, and 37 mpg combined overall.
Efficiency and fuel economy aren’t the only things that the 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid is hitting out of the park. This hybrid Kia SUV is bringing in a swell of exciting technology features that are sure to appeal to every kind of driver. The lineup of standard and available technology features for the Sorento Hybrid include:
For additional information on the arrival and availability of the 2021 Kia Sorento Hybrid in the Tampa Bay, Clearwater, and New Port Richey area, contact a member of our Friendly Kia team today. We look forward to helping you get behind the wheel of this new and unprecedented Kia SUV.


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Visitors to a fashion show, held this week in Jeddah, witnessed a rather unusual show. Organizers of the show chose to use drones instead of models to present the new collections of women’s fashion houses.
The show in question is part of an exhibition which takes place every year at Hilton hotel in Ramadan. The exhibition company decided to use drones this year instead of mannequins “to bring a change,” a spokesman person for the event told CNN .
The result? Dresses, abayas and bags hanging on (very noisy) drones flutter above the podium under the amazed eyes of visitors.
The unusual event quickly reached social networks, where Internet users seemed to be divided between astonishment and indignation. While some people oppose the idea of replacing women with drones, many enjoy these unusual images, comparing the event to a parade of ghosts.
عرض أزياء في السعودية.. كانه فيلم اشباح pic.twitter.com/ur0bfCgoBJ
— واحد oNe (@wa7d_riyadh) June 7, 2018
عرض أشباح في السعودية .. قصدي أزياء 😂 pic.twitter.com/xtJHGGtdwo
— جالينـــــــوس (@ilxooli) June 7, 2018


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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Posted: 05/7/2013 1:00 AM | Comments: 0
Last Modified: 05/7/2013 6:29 AM | Updates
There may be fewer Friendly Manitoba licence plates in Grand Forks and Fargo parking lots starting today.
That's because one of the longtime draws for Winnipeggers to make a run for the border has finally arrived here.
Target Canada will have a soft opening in a pair of stores in Winnipeg -- at Kildonan Place Shopping Centre and Southdale Centre -- as well as a third at Shoppers Mall in Brandon. All three will open their doors at 8 a.m.
Derek Jenkins, senior vice-president of external relations at Target Canada, said he's confident the Minneapolis-based retailer's arrival will be a bull's-eye with consumers. He said once you've been inside the store, you'll quickly realize it is not "Target Light."
"We want to reassure everyone that we really did our homework and listened to people. We're bringing some of the uniqueness of Canada (to the stores), but you're not losing the Target experience that you're used to," he said.
Target will open 22 stores across Western Canada today plus another two next week, bringing its Canadian total in the last two months to 48. It plans to cut the ribbon on 86 more before the year is out and long-term plans call for a total of more than 200 in the next decade.
Another store at Grant Park Shopping Centre is scheduled to open this fall or winter. Target is expected to build a stand-alone store on the former stadium site near Polo Park mall.
This is the biggest retail invasion Canada has seen since Walmart stormed the 49th parallel in 1994 with the acquisition of 122 Woolco stores.
Inside the Kildonan Place store, Target employees were putting the finishing touches on shelves and displays early Monday. Outside, curious shoppers walked up to the doors in the hopes Monday was the opening day.
Jenkins acknowledged the criticism of the company during its initial rollout in Ontario two months ago because prices weren't as low as consumers expected from their experiences at U.S. locations. He said Target will undertake regular shops at competitors around Winnipeg and will be very price competitive in the local market. He stopped short, however, of saying prices will be on par with Target stores in Grand Forks and Fargo.
"Because (those stores are more than two hours away), we'll stay with trying to make sure we're competitive in the marketplace that's right here (in Winnipeg). We want to make sure in any marketplace that we have (some) of the lowest prices and that we offer a great experience," he said.
Target Canada has spent about $10 million in renovations to each store, which used to be under the Zellers banner. The average footprint is 114,000 square feet, of which 67,000 will be for the sales floor.
In 2011, Target bought the rights to 189 Zellers' leaseholds from its parent company, Hudson Bay Co., for $1.83 billion. After reviewing the sites, it eventually decided to keep 124 of the stores from coast to coast, sell some to Walmart and return the rest to the landlords.
"The way this deal worked out, it was advantageous for us to get scale and be able to have enough stores across the country to make it work for us," Jenkins said.
He laughed when told Winnipeggers typically go bananas for new store arrivals -- hundreds of people stood outside for hours in frigid temperatures before IKEA opened its doors last November -- but if people are lined up prior to 8 a.m. there are contingency plans to make sure they all get into the store safely and can go through the checkout lines as quickly and efficiently as possible, he said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 7, 2013 B4
Updated on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 6:29 AM CDT: replaces photo, adds video, adds fact box
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Quarter of small firms selling online via eBay see rise in overseas sales compared with 12 months ago
A quarter of small firms selling online via eBay have seen a rise in overseas sales compared with 12 months ago.
The eBay Business Index is an annual barometer of Britain's small businesses selling online. It found one in ten were planning to enter new markets this year.
EBay said small business exports have had a strong 12 months, powered by the lower pound.
Boom: EBay said small business exports have had a strong 12 months, powered by the lower pound
More than 200,000 small firms trade on eBay in the UK, with 93 per cent exporting to an average of 20 different countries.
The study found the top five export markets for British goods on eBay were the US, Australia, Germany, France and Italy.
Clothes, shoes and accessories led the way as UK sellers' biggest export category.
The rest of the top ten were: vehicle parts; mobile phones and communication; home, furniture and DIY; sporting goods; computers and tablets; office and industrial; jewellery and watches; health and beauty; and collectables.
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New Phineas and Ferb Game coming in August
Majesco Entertainment Company and Disney Interactive have joined together to start development of an original video game based on the animated hit Disney television series Phineas and Ferb.
â€œWe are thrilled to be teaming up with Disney to bring a new Phineas and Ferb game to market across multiple platforms,â€ said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco Entertainment. â€œPhineas and Ferb is known for fun-filled adventures and hilarious gags that appeal to a universal audience, and weâ€™re creating a game that leverages the characters and brand attributes of the highly successful series.â€
The new game will be developed for retail consoles and gaming handhelds, including smartphones and tablets, and is scheduled for release in August 2013.


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The Indian government is working to introduce a Goods and Services (GST) tax on cryptocurrency transactions as an investigation is underway to determine the legality of the sector, according to information on Sept. 19. Live mint report.
Introduction of GST tax
GST tax will be an indirect tax regime for crypto assets and will serve as a check for loss of revenue to the State Treasury due to lack of clarity about assets.
The tax rate could drop between 18% and 28%, according to the report.
At this stage, the Indian Ministry of Finance is working to determine the applicability of GST to crypto-assets and whether they will be declared as goods or services as purchases are charged on services. has not yet been determined, Livemint’s two sources, who wished to remain anonymous, reported.
WazirX vice president Rajgopal Menon said, based on the details available at this time, “GST only applies to margin or service fees and not to the total value of assets.”
Also note that the government is also looking to process certain transactions such as mining and airdropped crypto tokens.
Crypto legality faces uncertainty in India
Meanwhile, the Indian government is finalizing its stance on the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies to submit a response to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “Mutual Evaluation” sometime in February-March 2023. .
India is not currently FATF compliant. The FATF requires countries to take a clear stance on legalizing, partially banning, or completely banning crypto assets.
The Department of Economic Affairs announced that it is preparing a consultative paper on Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) to assess the legality of VDAs. The consultation process began on September 17th.
The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), chaired by India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, discussed the need to clarify the VDA situation in India and delivered a message to accelerate the initiative.
Sitharaman also called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lead the development of a cryptocurrency regulatory framework to ensure a globally unified approach to the sector.
Early crypto regulation in India
On July 1st, the 1% tax deductible (TDS) rule for cryptocurrency transactions went into effect. TDS mandates Indian citizens engaged in the sale of crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, BNB, Shiba Inu, Solana to deduct 1% of profits as income tax payable to India’s Income Tax Authority I’m here.
In the 2022-2023 Federal Budget made in February, the Indian government defined cryptocurrencies as VDAs. Cryptocurrency status is not balanced.


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In the first quarter of 2020, the e-commerce sector recorded a significant rise in revenue as a result of the lockdown. Although this market will continue to develop, it is possible that customers will return to physical stores. Unity Group forecasts that in 2020, Polish e-commerce will reach a value in the range of 100-120 billion PLN, and its annual dynamics in the coming years will exceed 20 percent. (content in Polish)
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Last updated: October 2, 2023
Many people are turning to CBD oils and other products to relieve a wide array of symptoms. They have a legal right in their state to do so.
Medical marijuana use is exploding in our nation. To date, thirty-four states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico have all legalized its use to varying degrees. Moreover, several states have the matter of legalization and reform scheduled for upcoming ballots through 2020.
The varying degrees of legalization are making it tough on employers though. Employees impaired by medical marijuana pose a higher risk of accidents. It’s also proven that marijuana use causes a drop in productivity. Those two facts alone put up red flags in the workplace.
CBD vs THC
The medical marijuana category is divided into two sections.
Some states only allow legal use of CBD oils and products for medicinal purposes. They prohibit the use of marijuana as a whole. On the other hand, some states allow the use of the marijuana plant and products made with THC for medicinal use. Of course, we should mention that some states carry laws legalizing both uses.
CBD (cannabidiol) is a compound we find naturally in the cannabis plant. Both hemp and marijuana fall in the cannabis plant category. Therefore, this compound is found in marijuana and hemp.
The CBD levels are higher than THC in hemp and vice versa in marijuana.
Even though CBD has proven effects on the brain, it does not induce the same effect on the user that THC does. It is an entirely different cannabinoid. Therefore, using it yields an entirely different result.
CBD is not intoxicating, but it can cause a difference in the way the user feels. Therefore, it is used for the treatment of:
- seizure disorders
Depression and anxiety are responsible for a growing reliance on pharmaceutical drugs in our country. Doctors realize this and are looking for alternatives. Since CBD is nonintoxicating, doctors are prescribing it more often to treat these mental health disorders.
Is CBD really a cure-all?
In addition to treating mental health and seizure disorders, CBD is also used by cancer patients. Cancer patients report that it stimulates appetite, relieves pain, and eases insomnia. Data is also showing that a growing number of doctors proclaim cancer patients are benefiting from the use of CBD. In fact, CBD and THC combined reduce nausea that often accompanies chemotherapy.
Furthermore, studies in progress suggest that CBD has anti-cancer properties, as well. If these studies prove true, cancer treatment could be revolutionized!
Chronic pain relief is another huge reason people are turning to CBD products. The prescription painkiller epidemic is nothing short of frightening. Families forever ruined by addiction. People are dying in the tens of thousands every year due to overdose. It’s no wonder doctors shy away from long-term use of these drugs.
However, living a life with chronic pain is a huge cross to bear. CBD oil contains anti-inflammatory and other properties that many believe give them the relief that they seek.
According to those that use it, the wonders of CBD oil just don’t stop! Apparently, CBD oils contain properties that beautify our skin, too. We heard even wrinkles have met their match! Advocates proclaim that acne and dry skin problems disappear with the use of CBD skin-care products.
The active component in marijuana that produces a psychoactive effect on the user is THC. Growers in states that have legalized medicinal and recreational marijuana are always trying to increase the THC levels in their product. Although the claims of potency levels rising between 10-30% since the 1980s leave a wide margin for discussion, it is a known fact that the THC levels in pot are increasing.
From chronic pain relief to treating glaucoma, advocates of this drug claim widespread benefits. However, lung cancer and other respiratory disease are a concern for pot smokers. Studies are ongoing.
The euphoria effect obtained from using marijuana is due to the release of dopamine in the brain. That is to say, no matter whether the drug is being used recreationally or medically, it impairs judgment, motor skills, and reaction time.
This is a major concern for employers.
The benefits are questionable
Whether or not CBD oils and medical marijuana are as beneficial to the medical community as we are led to believe remains to be seen. Studies continue and further data is being collected on the topic every day.
In the meantime, people are turning to cannabidiol products in record numbers. Sadly, this could be to their detriment.
People may want to consider whether the amount of relief they obtain from using CBD is worth the risk of losing their job.
Employees who are using CBD oils and other products run the risk of testing positive for THC use. This is because of the THC levels found in CBD products. Currently, there are no set regulations in place monitoring the THC levels extracted along with CBD. It stands to reason that trace amounts escape through the extraction process, but with no set methods to adhere too, manufacturers have free rein.
Most of them choose to forge ahead without any testing in place at all.
This is posing a problem for employers and their employees who may never have intentionally ingested THC. Most employers are refusing to remove marijuana from the company drug test. If THC levels in CBD products are too high and the employee tests positive for marijuana use, drug-free policies in place are likely to call for termination.
Federal regulation of marijuana may be changing…
As we move further down the road of marijuana legalization and reform, the Federal Government is considering removing marijuana from all federal and DOT drug testing. State legislatures need to take a hard look at where this all fits into an employer’s perspective.
Marijuana inhibits the user. This has a negative effect on workplace safety.
Although CBD does not inhibit the user, CBD products containing levels of THC cause positive drug test results. This is unacceptable by any means.
There is a lot that remains in the dark regarding CBD and marijuana. However, shining a light on the problems at hand is the first step toward achieving the solution.


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Hilton president, Middle East, Africa & Türkiye, Jochem-Jan Sleiffer will oversee rapid growth for the 103-year-old hotel brand, adding 90 hotels to the existing regional portfolio of 179 within the next five years.
“This is a very interesting market for us,” says Sleiffer. “This has been an engine of growth over the last couple of years. This is a market where we can see that we can build more hotels. This is a market where people want to travel to.”
More than 60 of the upcoming hotels will be located in the Middle East, home to the UAE, Hilton’s largest market in the region with 33 hotels currently in operation and 14 in the pipeline. Gulf neighbour Saudi Arabia is the fastest-growing market with 16 hotels in operation and 45 in the pipeline.
The conclusion of this accelerated growth will be 24,000 additional hotel rooms across the Middle East, Africa, and Türkiye for consumers to choose between, which is why Europe is such an important source market for the brand.
“Europe has always been important in the [Middle East] region… the UK, France, Italy, Germany, but also, post-pandemic, we saw the Czech Republic and Switzerland really coming up,” says Sleiffer.
Sleiffer also points out that when travellers from the Middle East become familiar with Hilton brands, they are more likely to book them when visiting Europe.
“The Middle East market is an important feeder into Europe. It's important for us to have hotels in this region to get people familiar with the different brands that we have so, when they travel to Europe, they stay with us again,” explains Sleiffer.
Sleiffer will lead Hilton’s expansion while operating in a new era of hospitality shaped by ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) guidelines, a set of standards that companies are expected to make corporate policy in support of sustainability and local communities. Critically for hotel groups, socially conscious investors are now using ESG criteria to screen potential investments.
Initiatives that Hilton is involved with include Evolvin’ Women, a project that prepares unemployed women from less privileged economic backgrounds for careers in hospitality, and SEDRA (Services for Educational Development, Research and Awareness), a non-profit organisation that helps to put people of determination into the workplace.
Sustainability is also high on Hilton’s agenda. Tackling food waste has been one of the hotel group’s most significant achievements to date. Using an Artificial Intelligence system called Winnow, which photographs, weighs, and records different food types as they hit the bin, Hilton’s chefs have been able to accurately monitor and therefore reduce food waste by adjusting food orders.
Sleiffer says: “I'm proud that 95% of our hotels have achieved significant savings in food waste. Food waste is one of the biggest problems we have in the world, and, in this region, we have reduced that by the equivalent of 600,000 meals.”


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It is a business not only all over the city of Colombo but in the suburbs as well. As noon approaches, tightly-wrapped parcels or colourful boxes are stacked high on makeshift tables by the roadside.
For many schoolchildren, university students and office workers who have hardly had anything to eat for breakfast, the buth mula in these parcels or boxes will be the only sustenance for a long day.
What does the buth mula or packet of rice contain? This is what the Sunday Times set out to ascertain, when a three-member team toured the city and suburbs to see not only the range offered but also the quantity and quality.
|A roadside stall at Thimbirigasyaya. Below; Outside the Colombo University.
Pix by Sanka Vidanagama
The Sunday Times randomly collected seven packets from wayside vendors at locations such as the Town Hall, close to the Colombo University, Thimbirigasyaya, Borella, Dematagoda, Rajagiriya and Nawala.
The price of a packet ranged from Rs. 60 to Rs. 100 and either had chicken, fish, omelette, dried sprats or just vegetables, with the quantity of rice and servings of curry being quite small.
The one from near the Town Hall costing Rs. 90 consisted of rice, fried fish dhal, beetroot, leeks, pol sambol and a tiny piece of omelette, most probably about one-tenth of an egg. The Rs. 60 packet close to the University of Colombo had rice, dhal, carrots, mallung and dried sprats, with the vendor assuring us that it was ‘home-made’ while the one from a wayside outlet at Nawala Road, Rajagiriya costing Rs.100 had rice, dhal, a piece of chicken, cabbage, bitter gourd and kankun.
The packet from Thimbirigasyaya sold at Rs.80 along with rice had dhal, carrots, mallung, long beans and papadam and another from Borella for Rs. 85 had only rice, a piece of chicken, a cucumber salad and chillie paste.
Another packet picked up from an eating house at Dematagoda for Rs. 100 had rice, dhal, fish, brinjals, drumsticks and kankun while along with the Rs. 80 packet which contained rice, dhal, omelette, mallung, kekiri and radish came assurances that it was home-made.
Dhal seemed to be a staple along with rice, but in a packet which has protein in the form of chicken or fish, should not another vegetable be included? Are the quantities adequate? These are the questions that came up for nutritionists to answer and bring about regularization.
Although the packets were wrapped well, there was no cleanliness in the way the accompaniments which were the ‘rice-pullers’ such as pappadam and fried chillies were handled. Kept separately from the packets of rice, in large sili-sili bags, the pappadam and chillie were not only exposed to dust but also to the vendors’ hands, the washing of which were questionable with no water in sight.
Mostly delivered by three-wheeler to the wayside sales points, the Sunday Times checked out from where the packets emerged. Who were the suppliers and in what type of kitchens were these packets prepared?
The Sunday Times tracked down a supplier from Gangodawila who said he had been in this business for 20 years. According to him he supplies daily 500 packets to different points in Colombo. The process begins at 5 a.m. every day and by 9 a.m. the packets are wrapped and ready for delivery. The menus are changed daily depending on the price, with his packets ranging from Rs. 60 to Rs.80 depending on the vegetable varieties included.
The Rs. 80 packet includes five vegetables with either fish, chicken or egg while the lower-priced one has three vegetable varieties with fish, chicken or egg.
When asked about registration, the food supplier said he is registered at the Maharagama Urban Council and the Public Health Inspector inspects his kitchen once a month.
To check out the situation with regard to quality, when the Sunday Times contacted the Colombo Municipality’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam he conceded that wayside stalls were inspected only three years back but food outlets selling packets of rice are scrutinised regularly.
“We have checked those places and given instructions and warnings where there have been contamination and we continue to re-check until things are put in order,” he said, adding that other samples of food have been tested regularly and contamination has come down.
“Food hygiene is a very big issue now. It’s not just lunch packets, they also prepare various other food items in these kitchens,” he said.
Earlier the checks were for E.coli bacteria but recent findings indicate things like Staphylococcus Aureus, yeast and mould, he said.
Referring to some detections this month where vendors had been fined after being charged in court, Dr. Kariyawasam said a roti with E.coli was found in an eating house on Malay Street and a fish curry with the same bacteria from Deans Road. There had also been instances where a gecko was found in kottu roti sold at a food outlet in Panchikawatte and three samples of lunch packets from Maradana Road with worms in them.
E. coli comes from the human body and when found in food shows that people who have been preparing food are not clean. Staphylococcus Aureus comes from the nose or the skin, while yeast and mould are due to the raw material not being washed properly, he explained.
Explaining how quality testing is done Dr. Kariyawasam said that random samples collected from eating places and hotels are tested in the microbiological and chemical labs. Prior to obtaining the licence, hotels have to give samples – five from top grade hotels and three from small hotels.
“We check the water as well. Even if the food is okay, the water coming to the kitchen can be contaminated. By law they have to get water from the main line. Tube-well water is contaminated in Colombo,” he added.
In most of the instances, the packets of rice sold in Colombo are prepared outside. “It’s the responsibility of the Medical Officer of Health to inspect the kitchens and food outlets in their respective areas. We wanted to make it necessary for MOH certification before food is sold here, but there is no law to register the wayside sellers, he said, adding that they are trying to legalize the permanent places first to have a standard on food hygiene by the end of this year.
Managing with just four food inspectors for the Colombo area, Dr. Kariyawasam said that it’s difficult to carry out monthly inspections. “What we are trying to do is to get the top grade ones to a good level so that others can follow. There are about 515 eating houses in the city but so far only 150 are approved,” he explained.
In other countries, rice-based cooked food cannot be kept for more than three hours, said Dr. Kariyawasam leaving many a issue about the packets of rice that are seen on the wayside, for how long no one knows.
Urging the public to play their part in standardizing the food that is sold not only at eating houses but also by the roadside, Dr. Kariyawasam requested people to inform the CMC about irregularities on Phone:
011-2676161 or 011-2691922.


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Downing’s Steven Kenee has told MCA that work on Antic London’s long-anticipated ‘Norbury Mews’ project is likely to start in the new year but said the site could host a pop-up offer in the meantime.
Downing is backing the development of a pub and four food units in Norbury Crescent under Holte North Ltd vehicle.
The acquisition of the freehold buildings was £800,000 and a further £1m is being invested into the refurbishment. The project has been dogged by planning hold-ups despite receiving 150 letters of support from locals.
Kenee said the decision had yet to be made on whether the four food units would be run by Antic or whether the company would bring in a third party.
Antic chairman Mark Crowther said: “Despite being well populated, we identified that Norbury is under-served by good quality pubs. We are excited to create a food and beverage development which we intend to become the heart of this vibrant community.”
Kenee said: “We are delighted to back Holte North in acquiring a collection of derelict freehold buildings in Norbury, for development into a pub and four small units. The location of the property was highly attractive, especially as we consider there to be a scarcity of good quality pub sites in London. We believe that Norbury is currently under-served with quality pubs and restaurants and we anticipate strong demand for an Antic London-style offering in the area. Our extensive experience in the sector enabled us to act quickly in supporting this acquisition. We were willing to invest in an area of London where other food and beverage operators have so far been reluctant to open up, and we are delighted to bring the site back into use.”


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Bass Pro Shops inks deal for Brandon store
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Six months after a deal fell through that would have brought Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World to Brandon, the company announced late on Friday that it will build a 140,000-square-foot retail store and could hire as many as 250 people.
The site will be between Falkenburg Road and I-75 with Adamo Drive to the north and the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway to the south. The entrance would be off of Falkenburg Road, according to a Bass Pro Shops spokesperson.
The store is scheduled to open in 2014.
“We have been hoping for a store in the Tampa market for a long time and feel we have found the absolute best retail location in the market to build our new super outdoor store,” Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris said in a statement about the announcement. “We are very grateful for the support of everyone at Hillsborough County and developer David Verardo for this opportunity.”
The deal looked like a sure thing in the spring when the project hit a snag in April. All parties have been quiet about the negotiations since then.
The Brandon location will be the company’s ninth in the Sunshine State.
Chris Wilkerson is Deputy Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
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Share Centre stock of the week: Dixons Carphone
Dixons Carphone is our share of the week this week as expectations rise on the basis that the company may have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Black Friday sales weekend. The company is one of Europe’s largest consumer electrical and mobile telecoms retailers and the scale and scope of its products make it ideally placed to benefit from the steady rise in consumer sentiment in the UK. Investors should note that this should continue as wages begin to outpace inflation and employment levels increase.
An update in September saw the company report a rise in like-for-like sales in the UK of 10% in the first quarter, helped by increased mobile phone sales. Sales depend heavily on the new product cycle and so the recent release of the latest Apple iPhone should help to keep the company on track for another successful trading period.
We currently recommend Dixons Carphone as a ‘buy’ for medium risk investors seeking both growth and income due to the strong sales growth, the potential boost to retailers from the fall in the oil price and the benefits of scale provided by the merger. Analysts have been raising their expectations rapidly since the merger and with the company outperforming that trend looks likely to continue.


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Promoting tourism during Picayune Day at Pearl River County Welcome Center
Published 7:00 am Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, local businesses and organizations populated the Pearl River County Welcome Center to showcase the amenities Picayune has to offer as part of the National Travel and Tourism Week, which began May 2 and runs until May 10.
The nationwide effort aims to promote tourism and the revenue it generates across the country, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s website.
Pearl River County Welcome Center Manager Cindy Poland said the center has been hosting Picayune Day for the past 15 to 20 years.
“Tourism brings revenue into the city and the county and allows tourists the chance to come and see all the different things we have here,” Poland said. “It’s very important for the community to get involved and advertise their business so that we can get more revenue.”
Numerous businesses and organizations were in attendance, including the Picayune Chamber of Commerce, Holiday Inn Express and Suites, Sun Roamers RV Resort, local artists and novelists, Picayune Family Care Center, the Gold Wing Road Riders Association local chapter and the Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association.
“We’re out here to promote the hotel industry in Picayune because when business grows the city grows,” said Jessica Clabaugh, director of front office operations at Holiday Inn Express and Suites.
The event took place from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. During the event, Paul’s Pastry and Southern Char provided lunch and the center handed out gift bags to tourists.
Local Miss Mississippi Senior Pageant winners Gladys and Bonnie Hughes were also in attendance.
“We’re out here to promote our pageant and show tourists what we’re about,” Bonnie said.
Bonnie won the pageant in 2011 while her mother won the title in 2003.
Outside the center, tourists had the chance to watch metal art being created by Larry House from the Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association and check out motorcycles from the Gold Wing Road Riders Association local chapter.
“We’re really here to make drivers aware of the importance of watching out for motorcycles on the roadways,” said Garland Chadwick, member of the association. In 2008, the association won international chapter of the year.
Poland said more local businesses and organizations participated in this year’s event than in year’s past.


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In this special edition of its 5 Things series, Food Management highlights five recent technology-related developments affecting the foodservice world.
Here’s your list for today:
- Uber to expand robot delivery service
Uber has announced that it will be expanding its robot delivery capabilities with a new partnership with autonomous electric vehicles firm Nuro that will launch this fall with deliveries in target markets including Houston and Mountain View, Calif.. This will be an expansion of Uber’s foray into robotics, following test pilots in partnership with Serve Robotics’ sidewalk robots and Motional’s autonomous vehicles for longer-distance deliveries, both of which were announced in Los Angeles earlier this year and are “seeing great progress,” according to Uber.
- B2B meal vendors look to accommodate new workplace culture
Restaurant aggregator DoorDash and Nestlé-owned meal solution Freshly are making changes to their services to accommodate the new corporate work culture. New features for the DoorDash for Work product suite include self-serve onboarding for businesses, a streamlined expensing solution, a catering option and upgraded group ordering tools. Meanwhile, Freshly announced the launch of B2B arm FreshlyWell, offering on-site and remote solutions for employers and a wide range of institutions.
- Robots return to University of Arizona
New self-driving rovers are now bringing food delivery back to the University of Arizona campus and community six months after the school severed ties between GrubHub and the Russian robot company Yandex following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The rovers' return to campus comes after GrubHub inked a deal with Silicon Valley-based startup Cartken, which rolled out its line of self-driving AI robots in spring 2021. The move follows one announced a few months earlier by Ohio State, which had also severed ties with Yandex last spring, to resume robotic food delivery this fall with Cartken.
- Restaurant operator embraces tech as permanent solution
While most of the restaurant industry has been set back by labor shortage woes, Capriotti’s and its sister brand Wing Zone have spent much of the past year investing in automation and digital solutions. “I don’t think the labor challenges we're facing are ever going to get better,” CEO Ashley Morris said. “What the pandemic did for the industry, good or bad, is allow people to develop skills and start businesses online or find some other way to make money. … It’s a natural progression happening at a pretty rapid scale. So, automation is becoming necessary for the industry in order to perform the jobs that need to be performed inside the restaurant space.”
- Drone “superhighway” to open over England by mid-2024
Drone deliveries will soon be a reality as the world's first automated superhighway is slated to begin operations in the UK by mid-2024 as authorities have agreed to link up airspace between towns and cities along a 165-mile corridor that will allow drones to fly unpiloted across the Midlands and southern England. Project Skyway is part of a $330 million aerospace investment by the UK government, which includes autonomous drone deliveries of mail and medical supplies, as part of a transition to low carbon flight technologies.
Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]


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Travel agents are looking for clarification from the government on whether or not they will qualify for the Covid Recovery Support Scheme under the new restrictions which come into effect tomorrow.
The Irish Travel Agents Association is highlighting the fact that travel agents are classed as non-essential retail and will be permitted to open under the new restrictions. However for all intents and purposes, travel agents have remained closed since last March due to fears surrounding the spread of Covid-19.
Chief executive Pat Dawson (pictured) said: “Some sectors have received bespoke special assistance and grants during the course of the pandemic, and we are only asking that travel agents are treated in the same way, as we are one of the sectors which has been hit the hardest by the pandemic.
"We are calling on the government to make a clear decision on this, so that we can begin to rebuild our industry. Irish people love to travel; as soon as it is declared safe to travel again we believe that consumer confidence will be restored.
"Until that happens, we need support from government to protect our customers and our businesses.”
Since last March, travel agents have seen revenue slump by 95%. Dawson added: "The ITAA has pointed out that different sectors have received varying levels of support following the arrival of the pandemic.
"The association would like to see the travel sector treated fairly, as many travel agents have been under huge financial pressure to stay open this year, therefore the CRSS is vital for 2021."
The scheme provides for a cash payment equal to 10% of the average weekly value of turnover in 2019 up to €20,000 and 5% thereafter, subject to a maximum weekly payment of €5,000, for the same number of weeks as the restricted period. It is available where, as a result of the restrictions, a business’s turnover is no more than 25% of turnover for a comparable period in 2019.
Because travel agents are classed as non-essential but can open under all levels of restriction up to level 5, they are excluded from the CRSS payments. The ITAA is saying that being open makes no difference as travel has collapsed, so its members should get the payments.


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BY CHINA DAILY Ofo Inc, one of China’s largest bike-sharing platforms, is reportedly struggling financially amid rumors of bankruptcy or being forced to sell. Dai Wei, founder and CEO of Ofo, said in an internal letter on Wednesday: “As winter comes, the storm will hit soon”, calling on employees to remain loyal to the company. Dai sought to rally the company with organizational restructuring … Continue reading What went wrong with the “Little Yellow Bike”?
BY GLOBAL TIMES Chinese consumers’ backlash against Italy-based fashion house Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) has intensified, with some of its Beijing stores had no shoppers, and there’s no apparent end in sight to the controversy sparked by videos deemed by some to be offensive. Three D&G stores in Beijing the Global Times visited on Wednesday morning were almost deserted, compared with neighbors such as … Continue reading D&G stores “almost empty” in cities in China
BY SCMP China’s science authorities vowed on Tuesday to get to the bottom of whether biologist He Jiankui （贺建奎） bypassed regulations to create what he says are the world’s first genetically edited children. The commitment came a day after He announced in a YouTube video that healthy twin sisters were born in China earlier this month from embryos he and a team of researchers … Continue reading Was gene-edited twin experiment illegal? China has vowed to find out
BY CHINA DAILY A Chinese scientist’s attempt to produce the world’s first gene-edited babies who are immune to HIV has sparked heated controversy among those in academia and the public. In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui （贺建奎）, a biological researcher, announced that a pair of twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, were born healthy a few weeks ago through in-vitro fertilization … Continue reading Gene editing experiment generates controversy
BY XINHUA Chinese women are showing a stronger interest in traveling overseas without using a travel agent compared to their male peers as the outbound tourism market burgeons in China, a newly-released travel report found. Female made up about 46 percent of total independent overseas tourists, or a DIY fashion, in 2016, while the number climbed to 58 percent in the first three quarters … Continue reading China’s female tourists outnumber male in seeking overseas DIY travel: report
BY GLOBAL TIMES The US government is trying to persuade wireless and internet providers in allied countries, including Germany, Italy and Japan to avoid telecommunication equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. One of the US’ concerns, according to the report, is that the use of Chinese telecom equipment would pose cybersecurity risks to US military bases in these … Continue reading Will EU, Japan follow US lead in waging tech cold war against China?
By SILVI WRITER and CHINA DAILY Huawei may become the world’s largest smartphone supplier in 2020, despite of falling shipments globally. The Shenzhen-based brand remained the world’s second-largest smartphone supplier for the second consecutive quarter, with the global market share of 14 percent in the third-quarter of this year, consultancy Counterpoint Research said on Friday. Samsung and Apple took first and third positions with … Continue reading Huawei “may become” No.1 smartphone worldwide in 2020


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Last updated on August 27th, 2020 at 02:31 am
As the end of 2016 is within sight and the dawn of 2017 almost upon us, let’s take a look back at what made headlines this year in the cruise world.
Cruises to Cuba
This was a big one. After political relations with Cuba were restored by President Obama, this paved the way for US-based cruise companies to start looking at Cuba as the next major cruise destination. The changes didn’t come without hurdles and quirks, but the first ship arrived in Havana, Cuba on May 2, 2016. Since that time, many other cruise lines have begun to plan itineraries to Cuba.
Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Viking Ocean Cruises and a host of other companies introduced new ships in 2016. Bigger, bolder, more entertainment, more food, more technology – with each year that passes cruise lines are looking for new and innovative ways to cater to existing cruisers, while appealing to first-time cruisers. Here are just a few of the new ships that entered service in 2016.
New/Updated Cruise Terminals
The following ports made significant investments into new or upgraded cruise terminals in order to handle increased passenger flow. With newer, bigger ships coming into service each year this has caused an increase in demand for larger terminal facilities.
This page contains affiliate links for which we may receive financial compensation when a purchase has been made through one of our affiliate partners.


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By orchestra Kamanga
As one way of providing an opportunity to Malawians to access entertainment activities, Mac Donald Soko has opened “20 four 7” Centre which is located along Chileka Kameza Round about near Chileka stage.
Speaking in an interview, the Founder and Managing Director Mac Donald Soko said the entertainment Centre is a better place to enjoy because it provides a Bar, it hosts different events such as Weddings, Engagements, Meetings , par functions and restaurants which provide both local and international foods like Chambo, Nsima, local chicken, chisoso, chips all at reasonable prices so that customers can afford to buy.
“At 20 four 7 we have highly qualified employees from Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) and they are very polite and dedicated to serve customers. We have large parking area with maximum security,” said Soko.
The Centre also provides braai, boiled chicken, sea foods to customers with international standards.
“We host a lot of artists both local and international like Orga family, Lucius Banda and Zembani Band, Billy Kaunda, Black Missionaries, Aleluya Band plus we also hosted late Bob Marley’s memorial show: just to mention but a few.
For artists who prefer to conduct their shows there, Soko said they do not get charged as it is part of promoting the place.
For weddings and engagements, the price is K100,000 while food ranges from K1,000 to K2,500. Plans are underway to provide accommodation for visitors spending nights there.


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Rural Rhythm Records has released the second single I’ll Put The Blame On You” from the upcoming new album by the...
New Releases Articles
Engelhardt Music Group has just released Till The River Starts To Rise, the first single off of Eddie Sanders’ forthcoming album.
Robert Hale has officially released his new record, Blue Haze, featuring 7 tracks of some the biggest hits of all time, bluegrassed
The Dillards Releasing Five Singles to Five Different Genres For Dillard fans the wait is finally over. The Dillards...
Craft Recordings is set to reissue three best-selling albums from the Grammy Award-winning trio, Nickel Creek this month on vinyl.
Here is a new release from New England band, Rock Hearts. Don’t Let Smokey Mountain Smoke Get In Your Eyes.
Here is a new release from Steve Thomas & The Time Machine’s latest album All These Years called Lucky Man.
Slim Dime have released their third album called Long Journey Home.
Slim Dime is Jen Land on vocals and tenor guitar and Chris Taylor on banjo, guitar and vocals. As an acoustic duo they focus on old-time mountain sounds, seamless harmonies supported by flawless musicianship.
A new song is available today from Alan Bibey & Grasstowne. Hitchhiking to California is Alan Bibey and...
We brought news of Alecia Nugent’s last single release at the beginning of August this year. The album from which that single was released is now available, titled The Old Side of Town.
Phil Leadbetter & The All Stars of Bluegrass honour Steve Gully with early single release. On the 18th August this...
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road announces the upcoming release of their full-length project Bill Monroe’s Ol’ Mandolin. The collection includes 12 recordings, and is set for release on 21st August.


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It's our 200th edition!
Inside This Issue
It seems as though just a few weeks have passed since Eat Out to Help Out, but now there’s a second ‘lockdown’ for England in the wake of a so-called ‘fire-breaker’ lockdown for Wales, and similar restrictions in Scotland. Much of
hospitality is again under tremendous pressure, even though the takeaway and delivery sector aspect of it can continue.
The furlough scheme is to be extended and a new Job Support scheme has been unveiled as the true economic impact of
some of the most draconian peacetime measures ever taken by a UK government continue to be revealed. On a more positive note, the PAPAs 2020 is still on track to acknowledge some of the sector’s achievements


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Moving Walls runs blockchain-powered DOOH pilot for foodpanda. Together with Aqilliz, a blockchain solutions provider, facilitates a blockchain-powered DOOH advertising pilot for global mobile food delivery giant foodpanda.
AdCity, the OOH brand from Havas, is introducing a new post-campaign out-of-home media analysis service, after striking an alliance with Singapore-based global adtech firm Moving Walls.
Times OOH signs up with Moving Walls for Programmatic DOOH. The planning and buying solution will be integrated into 263 airport media in Mumbai, both domestic and international terminals, Coimbatore, Indore, Trichy, and 207 media across Mumbai Metro.
Quietly, 2019 has seen more brands embrace digital OOH advertising by understanding audience movement to optimising campaigns, connecting content to real-world conditions, and even buying the media programmatically using digital platforms.
Moving Walls partners Nigeria ICL to launch location intelligence platform in the region. AI-powered Moving Audiences ingests location data from several sources to deliver a powerful planning and buying solution for offline media.
Moving Walls acquires digital signage management platform Quad42, to create “the next wave of programmable digital signage." The company will leverage Quad42’s strong presence in retail and place-based environments to deliver relevant AI-powered communication solutions.
Moving Walls uses location intelligence to automate outdoor advertising. The company works with multiple stakeholders including media agencies, brands, and asset owners. It is also a Unilever Foundry Company and was named one of the top 50 tech companies in the world by TiE50 in Silicon Valley.
Pixel media selects Moving Walls platform to introduce programmatic OOH in Indonesia. Moving Walls will equip Pixel Media Inovasi with cloud-based inventory management and dynamic ad-serving capabilities along with audience data measurement for all their billboard sites.
Singapore-based Moving Walls has launched a suite of data powered planning and inventory management tools in India under an initiative titled 'Freedom'. The aim is to help the OOH industry in India, among the fastest growing in the world.
Moving Walls has entered into the programmatic out-of-home (OOH) space, power three automatically delivered campaigns on more than 800 media sites across Malaysia. It worked with Domino’s, Lazada and HP in Malaysia to automate the planning and buying of OOH.
Moving Walls campaigns reach 800 screens across Malaysia. It’s all systems go for programmatic out-of-home media as Moving Walls powers three automatically delivered campaigns on more than 800 media sites across Malaysia.
Moving Walls Integrates Lifesight Data to Strengthen its Offline Media Attribution platform. Moving Walls will equip Pixel Media Inovasi with cloud-based inventory management and dynamic ad-serving capabilities along with audience data measurement for all their billboard sites.
Transparency and automation will grow media spend and attract digital media buyers to outdoor advertising. That was the key takeaway as 59 leading billboard owners attended an outdoor advertising forum at The Royal Selangor Club, Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.
Smarter Billboard Advertising powered by Location Data. OOH is essentially the only surviving traditional advertising medium in today’s digital world. Still, this medium is lacking in terms of helping marketers to evaluate and improve their campaigns.
Moving Audiences, Asia's first unified online platform for Out-Of-Home Advertising, Linking over 2,000 digital Billboards in five nations, launched in Singapore. Moving Audiences is the first platform in the region to allow media buyers to plan and buy timeslots for DOOH billboards across borders.
Moving Walls looks to educate Malaysian advisers. The company has launched a new campaign, Lookup Lah, which hopes to educate Malaysian advertisers on the importance of investigating marketing data and figures found online.
Malaysia's first interactive billboard hypnotizes people in Bukit Bintang. Bukit Bintang has no shortage of blindingly bright distractions on its electronic billboards, but there’s probably room for one more, especially if it’s the country’s first interactive billboard.
Mcdonald's fans mobile strategy with real-time, real-world interactions. McDonald?s, already a leading mobile marketer, kicked up its efforts a notch this year by leveraging real-time technology to support how consumers use their smartphones to engage with the real world while driving traffic into a nearby location.
MOVING Walls has been named a “2017 TiE50 Winner” at the TiE50 Technology Awards Program in Silicon Valley. The awards recognise the world’s most innovative tech startups. Winners were announced on Friday, May 5 at the Santa Clara Convention Centre during TiE Silicon Valley’s annual tech entrepreneurship conference, TiEcon.
Moving Audiences platform pools 2,000 digital billboards in six countries. The company touts its new online platform for the DOOH (digital out-of-home) sector, launched last week, as Asia’s first programmatic booking solution for digital and static OOH media assets.
Moving Walls joins Unilever Foundry 30. The 30 chosen startups were announced just before the Millennial 20/20 2017 APAC Summit in Singapore. The startups, known as the Unilever Foundry 30 SEAA (for Southeast Asia and Australasia), will get access to Unilever’s brands and the Level3 co-working facilities housed in the company’s Singapore headquarters.
Malaysia's Moving Walls creates a tool to measure efficacy of OOH advertising. The company solution that tracks the effectiveness of out-of-home advertising — inspired by the Hollywood film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Brands like Dhani Doctor, GO Sport, Senco Gold & Diamonds, Shanmuga Hospital and many more in India are driving brand awareness and recall by combining Out-of-Home (OOH) and mobile to drive engagement, relevancy, create enforcement, and extend the reach of their campaigns.
Even as the world floats around a lockdown-no-lockdown situation while traffic movements remain unpredictable in the Outdoor Industry, Marketers Innovators believe that the industry will quickly bounce back with digital fatigue setting in while technology, data analytics, and measurement to drive it forward.
Moving Walls announces the appointments of Charranjeet Singh Arora, Sujit Banerjee and Heng Aw. Charranjeet Singh Arora, known as 'CJ' assumes the role business development director for Indonesia, Sujit Banerjee as head of demand in India, and Heng Aw to head growth in emerging markets.
Moving Walls launches dedicated portal - answers marketers' call for affordable, accessible, and measurable VideOOH deals. VideOOH.Deals, the e-commerce platform will connect all advertisers to curated audience-based deals for real-world video advertising on Out-of-Home (OOH) media.
Moving Walls Philippines announces partnership with the Media Specialists Association of the Philippines (MSAP) to utilise its Moving Audiences platform to create measurement, transparency and accountability for the Philippine Out-of-Home (OOH) industry.
LMX, the supply-side arm of media company Moving Walls has partnered with Australia-based ad platform CAASie.co in accelerating automated and audience-driven out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
Members of the Outernet Marketing Innovation Group (OMIG) held an Inaugural Session to address the Need for a Common Out-of-Home (OOH) Currency. The focus of the session was to discuss the need and benefits of a common Outernet Currency from the industry and advertisers’ perspective along with the group’s latest initiatives.
Market leaders such as Foodpanda, Kotra Pharma, and Lalamove identify the best use of location data for planning & execution in their Out-of-Home (OOH) campaigns to yield better Return on Investment (ROI).
Singapore’s largest cooked food operator Kopitiam recently collaborated with Association of Advertising and Marketing Singapore (AAMS) technology partner Moving Walls to bring accountability to Food Court advertising by adopting audience measurement technology on these media assets.
Programmatic DV360-enabled campaign steps into the Philippines for the first time. The ad-tech company Moving Walls integrated the campaign through Google DV360 supported by PMX Precision PH, and automated the planning and buying of Out-of-Home (OOH) on 4 iconic screens in Metro Manila.
The Out of Home Advertising Association of the Philippines has signed an MOU with Moving Walls Philippines to utilize its Moving Audiences platform to step up measurement, transparency, and accountability for OOH.
SEAOIL uses live traffic signals to inform motorists of the duration to the nearest gas station. The campaign curated location-aware messages in the form of distance in minutes to the nearest Seaoil station that would help the motorist estimate travel time.
GroupM, the world’s largest media investment company and technology provider, Moving Walls announced a partnership to bring automation and accountability to DOOH advertising in Malaysia by activating audience data-driven planning, buying, measurement, and ad-play verification solutions.
Netflix has harnessed the power of weather triggers to promote its newest Korean dramas in Indonesia with its latest marketing campaign #HallyuBarengNetflix created by Wavemaker and Moving Walls. For the show “Forecasting Love & Weather”, dynamic triggers were used for creatives to show rain when it was raining in the Jakarta metropolitan area.
The Media Specialists Association of The Philippines (MSAP) and global ad-tech player Moving Walls have launched a “Video Outside” playbook to share their learnings and provide guidance on how to extend video advertising to the real-world using billboards and placed-based Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) media.


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Verizon’s Beneficial Promotions are Dying Out
In response to falling sales, late last year Verizon launched a large-scale series of promotions intended to win back potential customers. However, it looks like their generosity has reached its peak, and things are now starting to go downhill for them yet again.
What should people looking for a reliable provider do? Is there hope for Verizon? Should people start looking toward the competition, or could it be that all the major providers are sinking? Could looking at an alternative calling method, like buy a number online, be a preferable option? Let’s take a look at the facts and see what happened and what the potential alternatives are.
What exactly happened that caused Verizon to panic?
While there is speculation that rising interest rates and other large-scale stock market phenomena were major factors in Verizon’s sudden decline, we won’t focus on that here. Although these things do undoubtedly play a role, there are other factors related to the company’s own decision-making that were more directly responsible for customers’ waning interest and the consequent decline in Verizon’s ratings.
As you’d expect, all the major providers are competing furiously against one another for the top spot in the rankings these days. For several years, Verizon was the leading company in the US. The company consistently had the largest network of 2G, 3G, and 4G coverage across the country for quite a while. Then, several things happened that started shifting the course of events.
For one thing, Verizon didn’t pay sufficient attention to the growing need for 5G until just recently. T-Mobile and other companies started putting a lot of emphasis on 5G because they could see that this is what people would be looking for. When 5G first came on the scene, there was a lot of skepticism about it because many people were concerned about privacy issues, security, etc. But it quickly became clear that this improved technology was the way the world was headed. In fact, as far back as 2019 providers globally started using 5G for their networks.
Although Verizon officially started offering 5G coverage in 2019, its coverage was limited in scope. When the company started deploying its brand of 5G more widely, it chose a type that ultimately cost more than its executives had bargained for. What happened was that Verizon decided to focus on what is known as “C-Band” coverage. What this refers to is the bandwidth that covers the 3.7 GHz spectrum range, as opposed to the AWS range of 17-21 GHz that other carriers use. This ended up being far more costly for the company than it had thought, and the consequences of this costliness became clear quickly.
In addition to phone subscribers, Verizon had to contend with losses to its broadband service, as well. Last year the company gained less than 100,000 new Internet subscribers, which is rather pitiful in comparison to previous years. Of course, these are two different issues. But when issues like this start piling up for a company, it’s usually a pretty clear sign that things are starting to go awry.
What did the company do in response?
In order to try to save itself, Verizon started offering deals to attract more customers. It advertised big savings on iPhone package purchases that included subscriptions at discounted prices. The company also offered attractive-sounding trade-ins that allowed customers to trade in phones, tablets, and smartwatches for cash. It even started giving away phones that only used the 3G network, knowing that they would only be of extremely limited interest to potential consumers.
However, these deals are fading fast as the company is quickly coming to terms with the reality that offering too many special deals will eventually spell doom for the company if they continue much longer. The moral of the story is, when a company appears to be getting desperate to hold onto business, this should be a major red flag telling you to look elsewhere.
So, what is the answer?
Given all of this, you’re probably wondering: Should I start looking at other providers? How do I know what’s really reliable, and who might fall next? Are there other possibilities I should consider, outside the traditional providers?
Well, it may or may not be the case that this is the beginning of a big phone provider domino cascade. In any case, it may pay to start looking around more broadly to see how your phone needs might be fulfilled in other ways.
Consider getting an online phone number
If you are sick of the whole process of thinking about landlines and mobile lines and minutes and coverage areas, you might consider getting an online number, instead. Especially – but not only – if you are running a business, there could be quite a few advantages to this alternative. Among them are the following:
- You won’t need a phone!
It’s basically a truism, but nonetheless bears repeating: If you think about it, having a phone number basically means having a phone (sure, there are some tablets that will allow you to use your phone number through them, but for the most part, having a phone number means having to think about where a particular device is all the time). Imagine being able to live your life more freely, without that extra piece of stuff to worry about, and still have your communication needs taken care of.
- Freedom of location
Need to run off to Paris on a whim? Don’t worry about it. Your online phone number will be with you wherever you’ll be in a WiFi zone. And you won’t have to worry about long-distance charges or anything like that because calling will be as easy as logging into your email. If you’ve got a staff, this can be particularly beneficial because staff members will be able to work from any given location and still communicate with customers at will.
In addition, you won’t have to worry about creating extensions. Remember the old-school picture of the boss with four different phones in his office? Well, the office extension mess feels just slightly less cumbersome than that in comparison to what technology allows for these days. Forget all the traditional phone issues. Online numbers are easy, straightforward, and problem-free.
- Improved ability to monitor traffic
Aside from the conveniences provided by having an online number, there are other practical benefits, as well. If your business is looking to conduct analyses of its potential customer base, there is no better way to do this than to have communications be online-based.
With an online number, you’ll be able to track your communication with callers, including their demographics, call time, frequency, etc with much greater precision. This is critical for any business hoping to keep up with the competition these days.
The choice is clear
So, these are the facts. The once-favored big-name phone providers are all struggling to stay afloat these days, and difficulties will continue to mount for them. Who exactly is on top at any given time might vary somewhat, but the fact is a better, more consistent alternative is clearly called for at this point.
Look into the possibility of getting an online number today. You’ll find that not only are many of your daily concerns taken care of, but your bank account will be breathing easier at the end of the month, as well. Telecom is moving in a new direction; take advantage of the new possibilities before you waste any more money or effort on traditional phones.


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Opponents of a controversial cruise ship terminal being built on the Gold Coast are concerned the proposal may be revisited when the cruise industry recommences.
- Gold Coast City Council shelved the proposal for a cruise ship terminal when COVID-19 hit
- Save Our Broadwater says millions of dollars has been wasted on the project
- Australia is one of the last nations to get cruises up and running again
The federal government banned foreign-flagged cruise ships in March 2020 as it grappled with the early stages of the pandemic.
The initial ban was extended until December 17, but the government said this did not mean it would be lifted on that date.
With the cruise ship industry on hiatus for more than 18 months, the Gold Coast City Council and Mayor Tom Tate, a supporter of a cruise ship terminal (CST), put the proposed project on hold.
Now, Save Our Broadwater vice-president Judy Spence says she is concerned the idea will be refloated.
"I guess it's never going to go away," she said.
"The idea of a cruise ship terminal on the Gold Coast has been around for more than a decade.
"Various options have been looked at and none of them have proved particularly successful."
Locations for a CST have previously been identified at Wave Break Island on the Broadwater, and inside the Gold Coast Seaway. The latest proposal is for an off-shore terminal.
"A lot of work has been done ... and a lot of money has been spent on that. I think council spent more than $12 million," Ms Spence said.
"At the end of the day it simply doesn't stack up.
"I'm hoping it won't come back on the table."
Australian National University (ANU) emeritus professor Kathryn Robinson believes the Gold Coast is a good choice for a terminal because of its location.
"I think it would probably be very attractive," she said.
"The thing about these cruise ships is they're totally dependant on aircraft to get passengers to places where they can put them on en masse.
"You could very easily get the passengers off the ship and into buses, which is the classic model, and take them off to all of those gorgeous places in the hinterland or down to the beach."
Professor Robinson said that although the industry has suffered through the pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
"There is a great determination by the global cruise industry to get back up and running," she said.
"They berate Australia for being one of the last places to get cruises up and running again."
Dr Robinson said cruise ship operators believe they have adequately responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by imposing conditions on staff and passengers.
"A lot of the ships are booking about one third of the passengers they would normally take.
"Since June and July there have been cruises operating in the United States and in Europe."
The ANU academic said there are strong bookings into 2022, as operators offer deals to get passengers back on board.
"People who like cruises really like cruises and they can't wait to get back on," she said.
"There's a huge diversity in the cruise industry and different kinds of cruises appeal to different sorts of people."
Save Our Broadwater's Judy Spence said she wouldn't be surprised if the Gold Coast Mayor revisited the CST proposal.
"You'd really hope that other great alternatives for tourism come to mind in the future rather than cruise ship terminals."
A spokesperson from Mr Tate's office said the CST project has been put "on hold", given what happened to the world cruise market during the COVID pandemic.
The council is prioritising other tourism strategies, the spokesperson said, such as a hinterland cableway, off-shore diving sites and a proposed 8,000-seat music and events arena.


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March 14, 2019
The Challenges and Opportunities Hitting Hong Kong Wealth Management
Private wealth management is rising in popularity throughout the world, and Hong Kong has proven itself to be a true hotspot: KPMG and Private Wealth Management Association’s third annual Hong Kong Private Wealth Management Report claims that the industry’s assets under management (AUM) will double in five years.
Unsurprisingly, technology is expected to be a mainline for growth. Still, most of the wealth management executives surveyed believe that the current digital capabilities aren’t matching with their high net worth clients’ needs.
To keep up with competition, the wealth management industry in Hong Kong has begun majorly investing in digital solutions.
The Onboarding Paradox
How long it takes to onboard a client has a big impact on customer experience and whether a client chooses to stay or go. The survey revealed that the average onboarding time in Hong Kong has actually increased from 30 days in 2016 to 40 days in 2018. This is probably because of increasing regulations that increase KYC complexity.
Looking across the entire customer journey, it’s not a shock that technology is changing customer expectations. Because of how far technology has come in so many industries, customers are increasingly expecting a better, more seamless experience from financial service institutions, and that includes faster onboarding, easier access to information, and personalized services when interacting with their wealth managers.
As many as 58% of wealth managers surveyed expect that 10-30% of today’s face-to-face interactions will occur via digital channels by 2023. According to the report, it would fundamentally change a relationship manager’s role.
The CX Sweet Spot
While the report results show that digital communication is taking over and it may even sound like face-to-face interactions will soon be obsolete because everything will become digitalized, this isn’t the case. People need to foster a more meaningful connection to build trust and loyalty.
At our last Thought Leadership Series on the digital future of wealth management, our panel of experts clarified that high net worth individuals (HNWIs) don’t want to get everything through digital channels; there’s still an undeniable desire for human interaction.
The sweet spot lies in a combination of artificial and emotional intelligence—the hybrid service model. This is how wealth managers can get closer to next-gen clients.
The Client Lifecycle Management Starting Line
Where do you start? By digitalizing your onboarding processes (including the middle and back office), using intelligent process automation to decrease friction and free up relationship managers’ time for more value-adding activities.
According to the report, another great technology option that’s growing in popularity in Hong Kong is a KYC utility, where client information is stored and shared across institutions. This will support more complex KYC processes, and you can potentially make use of blockchain technology as well.
As a final note, don’t forget to look beyond onboarding and envision the full customer lifecycle to attract and serve HNWIs. Create a 360-degree customer view by gathering available data that includes demographical information, contact details, and behavioral data, as well as diving deeper into predictive analytics.
Use all of this knowledge to understand the full data landscape and build a strong digital foundation for your business.
Madli LillemägiMarketing Manager EMEA and APACAppway


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With the first day of school already here for some students or just around the corner for others, Schaumburg resident Dianne Schocker will wave goodbye to her three children--and at least $800.
Schocker recently endured the annual back-to-school shopping spree with her children, ages 10, 6, and 4, as she joined harried moms and dads searching for the perfect pair of jeans, Pokemon backpacks and, above all, a bit of sanity.
"I've learned that the only way to shop with the kids is to go out for one thing at a time, and to keep the trip to an hour or less," said Schocker, who left the Gap in downtown Arlington Heights with a bag filled with jeans and T-shirts.
The first day of school varies across the area. In some districts, school opens Tuesday, while others begin Wednesday and some start next week.
Like most parents, emptying her wallet each August has become a necessity for Schocker, who said $800 is not lavished on luxuries, but pays for basics such as khakis, gym shoes and backpacks.
Not only do kids outgrow most of their clothes over the summer, but the schools also send out lists of school supplies that are needed, said Peter Gill, a spokesman for the Chicago-based Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
This is a big season for retailers, where a lot of money is spent just to buy the necessary items, Gill said.
For some merchants, school shopping is more profitable than the holiday season, adding up to 20 to 30 percent of a retailer's annual sales, Gill said.
A recent National Retail Federation study found that the average family will spend $549 on back-to-school merchandise this month, but Gill said that only covers the basics, such as gym shoes, jeans and school supplies.
Although families with children in preschool through 3rd grade can usually get by with shopping for back-to-school clothes and shoes at discount stores, adolescents faced with peer pressure can make unreasonable demands on parents' pocketbooks, Gill said.
The younger children will be happy to get a Pokemon backpack or a new lunch box, Gill said. But preteens and teens will tell their parents that everyone is wearing a particular item. If the students don't have a certain fashion, they are really concerned about what their peers will think.
What trends are on the A-list?
Gill said high school and college students are searching for personal digital assistants, laptops, cell phones and electronic pocket planners.
According to Scott Pierce, a store manager at the Gap in downtown Arlington Heights, youngsters are demanding back-to-school clothes that are nearly identical to the hot fashions worn by older siblings.
"The focus for the boys I've met in the store is to look like their older brothers, who wear in-line, micro-fiber pants and reversible vests," Pierce said. "The girls are getting back to the feminine clothes this year, with a lot of '70s styles and embroidered jeans."
Lynne Benson of Hoffman Estates tossed a skateboard-style shirt into her cart at the Old Navy store on Golf Road in Schaumburg last week, saying that the moderately priced retail chain is perfect for her family, and her finances.
"My 2nd grader is already very particular about what he will wear," said Benson, shopping with her children, ages 7, 5 and 3. "I always bring them with me so they can try everything on. Last year, my son tried on 17 pairs of jeans before he found a pair that fit."
At the Woodfield Target Greatland store in Schaumburg, children scampered across the back-to-school supply aisles, some testing out skateboards and bouncing balls, while younger siblings wailed from their perches in shopping carts.
"We started getting ready for the crowds last July, and by late August, we are in stride," said Jeremy Lewis, an executive manager at Target. "We even hire a specialist to take note of what is selling well, so we can order more and always stay stocked. We're always trying to catch up with the latest fad."
This month, Lewis said shoppers have been clamoring for Scooby Doo lunch boxes and anything embossed with the Powerpuff Girls. Though Target makes it a practice to post the supply lists from local districts, Elk Grove resident Anneli Stambro pored over her own list from Adolph Link Elementary School.
"They need everything--crayons, erasers, rulers and highlighters," Stambro said. "I haven't counted what this is going to cost, but it will add up."
At St. Theresa Catholic School in Palatine, officials have prepared custom-made back-to-school supply kits designed for each grade level, preschool through 8th. The kits, which cost $25 to $30, save parents the hassle of scrambling to find dozens of items at area stores.
"It's wonderful to have a prepackaged kit, that has paper towels for the 3-year-olds and a calculator for the 8th graders," said Shirley Shanahan, a St. Theresa parent who works in the school's main office. "But we still have about 50 percent of the families who take the option of buying themselves. My impression is that some kids like to pick out their own things."


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Sage partners with Microsoft Azure to target Cloud market
- 05 May, 2012 17:12
UK-based software provider Sage has announced that it will be partnering with Microsoft to develop its ERP solutions on the Windows Azure platform in a bid to target the SMB cloud market.
Sage will initially focus on Europe with Sage 200, a finance, CRM and business intelligence package, being developed in the UK and Spain.
The solutions will be compatible with Microsoft Office 365 and be rolled out to pilot sites in the coming months. The products will hit the market for general release in 2013.
"This is great news for our SMB customers who want both the best of on-premise applications and the benefits of the web. It is also very important for Sage because it shows momentum in the delivery of our web strategy and our commitment to a consistent technology and platform strategy," said Antoine Henry, Sage Europe's SMB market segment leader.
"A diverse eco-system requires more standards and the alliance provides this plus a direct way to engage with a whole range of Microsoft products. A fully featured platform as a service (PaaS) approach allows us to speed up development of domain specific customer applications, boost productivity, accelerate time to market and reduce duplication."
However, the deal has been criticised by Angela Eager, research director at analyst firm TechMarketView, who believes that the move still does not highlight a strong commitment by Sage to deliver a wide array of cloud products in the future.
"Sage, always a cautious mover shall we say, has been on the brink of making an out and out commitment to the cloud for several years now but never seems to pluck up the courage to take the plunge," said Eager.
"It is paying the price - UK growth over the last few years has been laboured, something in the three percent to five percent range - and we can't see that changing without a dramatic shift in its strategy."
She added: "The alliance will move Sage's cloud developments forward but movement is slow and the approach is piecemeal. Sage makes a selection of its applications available via the cloud and Azure will add another, separate delivery platform. Sage's commitment to the cloud still looks half-hearted and it lacks a coherent strategy."


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It’s fun to start broadcasting yourself whenever inspiration hits you, isn’t it? Nowadays, more and more video performers exclusively use their smartphone whenever they want to shoot HD videos or live broadcast themselves to followers. Smartphones today have amazing cameras and all you need is a bit of enthusiasm to show everyone how passionate you are about your topic of interest.
Video-blogging played a huge role in launching the careers of thousands of content creators who had something big to say. Thus, many successful full-time YouTubers create and broadcast videos to audiences, which follow their channels with an almost religious diligence.
In an era of continuous online presence, we have only good news for all the video bloggers out there: The Google-owned video giant has started rolling out the mobile live streaming feature to more and more content creators worldwide.
Short and sweet, YouTube has dramatically reduced the 10,000 subscribers limit for mobile video streaming app: You can now go live if you have a mere 1,000 subscribers.
Back in February, Google launched its live streaming feature, which and it brought the facility to broadcast yourself directly from your smartphone or tablet. Naturally, this feature was directly aimed at big content marketers, for whom it was a huge source of revenue.
How to go live if you are new to YouTube
If you want to propel yourself into the universe of mobile video streaming, you should first get your head around the subscription steps.
First things first, to enable live stream videos, simply go to Creator Studio dashboard. Then, you have to press the capture button and, boom, you are instantly live.
The new move is not totally unexpected. Given Google’s competition by Facebook, whose users are already making use of its live streaming en masse, it is only natural that YouTube should also make its version of the feature more readily accessible to average users. In addition, other widely popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram recently also launched their own live video app and they bring together impressive numbers of users and viewers.
However, YouTube has also created some confusion by lowering the subscriber percentage required for live streaming by 90%, as the video platform has already pointed out that the functionality will soon be open to all users.
Interact with the audience
YouTube has announced a new feature to help users and vloggers monetize their live sessions. It’s a live stream chat, called the Super Chat, and it allows you to pin a comment on live streams, for a small fee. So, if you really want to make your voice heard by using the live YouTube feature, large audiences who are willing to comment will certainly be a major financial boon for any channel.
Keeping the feature available to established channel owners will also allow the service to test its live feature with a more technically diverse audience, before considering an extension of this new policy to everyone.
This move by Google, alongside its new ad policy, shows that YouTube is set to reform its policies more actively than ever, in an organized effort to set apart original content creators from spammy producers. The YouTube advertiser-friendly policy draws the line for those videos which can earn revenue, making sure that ads appear where advertisers want them to appear. Basically, if you want to continue to base your income on YouTube, make sure you go through that 10,000 views milestone.
In conclusion, the new YouTube mobile live streaming feature is expected to create more online openness and further boost the video platform’s popularity in the face of aggressive competition from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.